West Midland dairy farmers receiving less for their milk than it costs to produce have called on the Government to help ensure they get a fair deal.

Addressing this week’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole, at the NEC, NFU president Peter Kendall described as “exploitation” the situation facing the UK’s milk producers and their families.

The average farmer in the UK receives 3p per litre less than it costs to produce, with the average milk price around 26p and cost of producing it 29p, according to an NFU report.

This comes at a time when input prices such as feed and fuel are rising steeply.

The conference saw passionate speeches from dairy farmers who told Environment Secretary and Conservative MP for Meriden Caroline Spelman that the sector was in a desperate state, with many farmers giving up on the industry that could no longer sustain them.

One claimed it was “the supermarkets that are running the country, not the Government”.

Harry Johnson, NFU regional board chairman, said farmers in the West Midlands – the second largest dairy farming region after the South West – were also suffering.

“Once they are gone, they are gone – the animals are lost, the skills are lost and it’s extremely difficult to reinvigorate such an important sector,” he said.

“The prices are making it unsustainable. It doesn’t make it attractive to people coming in if son sees dad under such pressure.”

Figures showing the number of dairy farms in the West Midlands during 2010 have not yet been published, but Michael Oakes, who runs a dairy farm in the Lickey Hills, said in some areas such as North Warwickshire, he estimated two-thirds of dairy farmers had gone out of business over the last five years.

Mr Oakes, who is West Midland regional dairy board chairman, said: “The real thing that’s depressing dairy farmers is that for the first time for a long time the global demand for dairy products is extremely positive.

“There’s growing demand in places like China and throughout the world.

“The vast majority of farmers throughout Europe, including Ireland, are getting substantially more money for their raw material – milk – than we are.

“There’s something structurally wrong with the dairy industry and it’s pointing to the power of the retailers being one.”

Mr Oakes said a key problem was the inflexibility in the contracts dairy farmers were obliged to sign with milk buyers and called on the Government to use its influence to help farmers renegotiate.